time.

Tum Tum was learning some new tricks, and this took up much of his time.
Each day he was growing bigger and stronger, for he was not a very old
elephant, when he had been caught in the jungle. Now he was very strong,
and he could easily have pushed two heavy animal cages at once. He was
the strongest elephant in the whole circus.

One day, when the circus was going along the road from one town to
another, one of the wagons became stuck fast in the mud, for it had
rained in the night. It was the wagon in which rode the hippopotamus,
with his big red mouth that he could open so wide.

The whole circus procession had to stop, or at least all the wagons
behind the hippopotamus cage, had to stop, as they could not get past.

"Bring up some of the elephants, and have them pull the hippo's cage out
of the mud!" cried the head circus man. He called him "hippo" for short,
you see.

Up came two big elephants, and chains were put about their necks, and
made fast to the hippopotamus wagon.

"Now, pull!" cried the circus men, and the elephants strained and pulled
as hard as they could.

But the wagon did not move out of the mud.

"Pull harder!" cried the circus man, and he cracked his long whip, but
he did not hit the elephants with it.

But, no matter how hard the elephants pulled, they could not pull the
hippopotamus wagon out of the mud.

"Well, what are we going to do?" asked the head circus man. "We cannot
stay here all day."

"Suppose you let my elephant, Tum Tum, try to pull the wagon out of the
mud," said Tum Tum's keeper. "My elephant is very strong."

"Ha! But is he as strong as two elephants?" asked the head circus man.

"I think so," said the keeper. "Let us try. But Tum Tum can push better
than he can pull, so I shall put him in back of the wagon, and let him
push it out of the mud with his head. Let some of the men steer the
wagon in front, when Tum Tum pushes from behind."

"Very well, we shall try," said the head circus man.

The ten horses who pulled the hippopotamus wagon had been unhitched when
the two elephants tried to pull it. Now the two elephants were led to
one side, and Tum Tum came up.

"Ha! He thinks he can push that wagon out of the mud, when we two could
not pull it," said one elephant to the other.

"Yes, he is very proud," spoke the other.

Tum Tum heard them.

"No, I am not proud," said Tum Tum, "and I am not sure that I can push
the wagon out of the mud, but I am going